Printer cartridges are typically designed to provide the consumer a certain number of print copies before the toner or ink is exhausted. The total number of prints varies depending on the type, quality and density of the print provided by the printer. After all of the toner or ink is spent, the cartridges are either thrown away or recycled.
Within an inkjet printer, there may be four or more inkjet cartridges. Each of the inkjet cartridges may contain a specific color of ink. There may be up to seven color inkjet cartridges for each color inkjet printer, including black, magenta, yellow and cyan color cartridges. In some inkjet printers, the basic shape of the various inkjet cartridges may be very similar with only slight differences. For instance, all the cartridges may use the same print head or nozzle. The shape of the ink tanks may also be very similar. However, the printer manufacturers have developed a keying system to prevent the wrong inkjet cartridge from being installed into the incorrect cartridge location within the printer. Typically these keys may be a protrusion on the outside of the inkjet cartridge which may match up with a recess or set of recesses in the inkjet cartridge compartment. If a black inkjet cartridge is attempted to be inserted into a cyan location, the cyan keys prevent the black inkjet cartridge from being inserted.
Additionally, the inkjet cartridges may be designed to fit into one type of printer or family of printers. For instance, the various Hewlett Packard (HP) 83 inkjet cartridges (black, magenta, cyan, light cyan, light magenta, and yellow) may not be compatible for use in with other HP printer types such as the HP Edgeline family of printers, even though the cartridges may look very similar. The printer manufacturers may alter one or more physical characteristics of the inkjet cartridges. In some cases the differences may be an entirely new shape or the printer manufacturer may only change a minor detail such as an indentation or a protrusion in addition to the color keying for the individual color inkjet cartridge.
Commonly on some inkjet cartridges, there may be color indication tabs indicating the particular color of ink contained within the inkjet cartridge. In addition, there may also be printer identification fins which differentiate which printer or printer family the inkjet cartridge is compatible with. Because the color identification tabs line up with certain recesses within the printer as well as printer identification protrusions that line up with printer identification keys, the printer manufacturer may have to produce a different inkjet cartridge for each color for all of the various printers or printer families. This may be an inefficient way of offering inkjet cartridges when the inkjet cartridges may be very similar.